Jerry,

I have the Bontrager 20 guage air shotgun, and I've tried the 430 gr Ballistic Product 20 guage slugs like Joe recommended, but the problem is the slugs are too hard, I lost about 150 fpe from the shotgun. My gun gets 500 fpe from the Winchester 340 gr slugs (I had to buy the whole shotgun shelves and removed the slugs from sheves), it shoots ok with these, but I know this gun is capable of much more energy wih the heavier slugs. The 20 guage barrel is from Track of the Wolf, and I also have the sizer die that Joe made for me. I wonder If you can sell me some of your slugs to try out, and if it works I will buy a larger amoumt from you. I just couldn't find any heavier 20 guage slugs, and I know your slugs are very accurate. Thanks!

Well,

all I can say is that I have had similar problem (there was NO slug at all to my gun's barrel).

There are places which make and sell customs slugs to shotguns (mostly to firearm shotguns though), and there are places that make casting molds (and then you could cast your own slugs). For example, I have relatively accurate slug to my smoothie sam yang... and I could give you detailed information of its size and measure, if you just want, and then you could possibly make a mold which produces similar slugs but slightly larger only... Just a suggestion which requires quite much work I know (but it'll teach and makes your days for quite some time, lol). But honestly, just PM me, if you want that information...

Thanks Seppo! But I'm not ready to do casting yet. If I find the slugs I want for my gun, I'll just buy a large amount to last me. Thanks anyway.

Proper projectiles are part of the whole equation of being a gunsmith. As you've found ... a gun is nothing without matching slugs. I've never understood why so many makers are content to finish the gun, and then not provide the tools to make proper ammo.

Airguns are not firearms. Projectiles designed for barrels on firearms, are not correct for airguns ... no matter the caliber. The biggest mistakes are: 1). buying a firearm barrel with wide lands and very few grooves. (Typical firearm barrels only have about 6 grooves). 2). Buying the slugs what were designed for those firearm barrels in the first place. (Airguns do not have enough power to blast slugs thru firearm barrels). 3). Trying to use slugs that were cast from hard lead. (because they were intended to be fired from firearms).

You need to start at the beginning. You need a complete set that's intended for airguns. Other than that, you'll always be chasing a poor alternative.

I invest countless hours in designing slugs and tooling for making my projectiles. But I could never do it for guns other than my own. The reason people don't do it, is because it takes so very long, and you can barely get paid anything for it. And, after I've spent the time and money (out of my own pocket) I never like to see my hard work given away to try to make someone else's gun shoot better (who didn't want to spend the time and money to complete the job).

We shot yesterday. We were shooting the Grizzly as one of the guns. The thing (with it's Barnes Barrel and Barnes slug designed especially for it) is just laser guided. It was simple to pick off steel groundhogs at 175 yards. You just knew you were not gonna miss anything at 100 yards that you pointed it at. That's the result of quite a few years of efforts, and all those years of tooling.

Peter ... if you have a true 20 guage ... then you need to buy a 20 gauge slug mold and have someone (maybe Jerry if he cares to) cast that mold in "dead soft" pure lead. That's the best you are gonna do. You might also need custom sizing dies, because your gun can't push oversized slugs and mold them to the barrel like a firearm. When a slug is that big, even a thousandth of an inch is a huge amount of lead to mold.

Sepeteus followed thru with his barrel, and did pretty well it sounds. That was a good offer he made you.



Gary

Thanks Gary! Good advice. I guess, I'll have to find the right mold to get the best out of the shotgun and learn how to cast slugs. The barrel has a built in full choke, I think that is the reason why it robbed a large amount of velocity with a hard cast slug. With soft lead, it shoots good.

Hi Peter,

Yeah ... the choke would be the deal breaker. I can't imagine that works at all. Guess that's the barrel they had available, but it's gonna kill any airgun.

Gary

Peter,
If you find a mold you like, I'm sure Chris can work up a price for casting slugs with it. Send along a Lee press compatible sizing die and sizing can be done as well.

I'm wondering why you are using a choke with slugs?

Joe said the choke works better with shot, it gets denser and tighter pattern. I shot it and the pattern at 30 yards is good with number 6 shot. This gun use the shot wads of the shotgun. For slugs, I guess it wotks against it a litle bit. Thanks Jerry for your offer.